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Sensory or Behavior?

This is one of the popular and everlasting discussions among the professionals in sensory integration / child development field. When a child is having e.g. a tantrum, how do you know if it’s sensory or behavior? This is a very important question because it defines our reactions towards the child in that moment. And our reactions are there to help the child either by calming him down or by teaching him some boundary.

There is a consensus about a couple of things:

every child needs good* boundaries
every child needs good* structure

*not necessarily strict or harsh
While reading other people’s opinions on sensory or behavior question, one interesting answer pops up: it is sensory and behavior, and not sensory or behavior. It is very hard to define a behavior and not take the sensory factor into the consideration. If your child doesn’t want to eat something and is crying and jumping in their feeding chair, take a look at the food you gave them: is it too hot or too cold or perhaps too chewy? Children who have low muscle tone in the oral area will most likely find difficult to chew and will thus most likely refuse to eat e.g. some meats or bread crust. Those same kids, on the other hand, will want to get the stimuli the easy way and you might see them asking you for crunchy foods that are easy to chew through e.g. chips, salty sticks, rice cereals etc. Food temperature is also very important to sensory kids. Just try to make them get used to it step by step. Forcing them to eat something, whether of the “wrong” temperature or texture is only going to make them refuse it, even if they would initially want to taste it.

So, how come a lot of the times we get the report from the preschool teacher that the child ate everything and is eating nicely in the preschool and makes such a drama at home? Well, the answer may as well be – the structure. Don’t confuse this with boundaries. Parents may be very clear on the boundaries, but the structure is what is missing at home. Usually preschools organize time and setup for meals where all children eat together at a table at the same time. So, this structure and predictability helps a lot of the sensory kids in their organization and regulation. If they do not have to think about what’s coming next and how they will manage themselves in the new situation, but they know that at this time, kids will start getting together at the table and food will be served, those sensory kids can be at peace and they can participate in an adequate way. To go back to the structure vs boundaries – sometimes what happens is that parents put stricter boundaries or let’s say, stricter parenting to compensate for lack of structure. Perhaps this is a good question to analyze in one of the future posts.

Another question to be asked here is how to know whether your child’s current behavior is purely sensory or behavioral, though I said that usually it’s both? Well, The Anonymous OT gives a good point in his “Is it Sensory, Behavior or Both?” blog post.

This is where I tell my parents to be incredibly attentive to the subtle signs from their child. With any behavior analysis, there is an “antecedent,” or something that happens before the behavior. This is where the parent has to look for the clues. What was the root cause of the outburst?

I agree with this statement and have been recommending the parents I work with to do so – to try and figure out what happened right before some good or bad behavior. Important thing to know and remember is that kids are not bad, they do not want to act badly. Children actually want to please their parents. If a child is behaving “badly”, it is up to us to figure out why and help them.

P.S. I like this document!

Posted on May 30, 2014 by lina. 4 comments

Kako senzorički opremiti kuću?

English version

Jeste li vi među onima koji imaju prazan podrum koji k tome nije vlažan te je savršen za senzoričku sobu? Ja nisam! Mi živimo u stanu. Imam doduše garažu, ali ne odgovara ovim kriterijima. Prljava je, vlažna i puna stvari. Također je i dva kata niže. Svakako nije namjenjena za senzoriku. Moji roditelji imaju podrum, ali je također vlažan, prepun stvari i ima veliku škrinju. Ne odgovara našim potrebama. Dobra vijest je da vam ne treba zasebna prostorija. Jedna super strana senzorne integracije je što nas traži da budemo vrlo kreativni. Djeca i roditelji s kojima radim inspirirali su mnoge moje ideje, igre i trikove.

Dakle, što možete učiniti da vaš mali, skučeni dom bude senzorički povoljan? Počnimo razmišljati u 3D! Iskoristite svoje zidove, plafon, podove, vrata itd. Sve može biti korisno. Ali najprije pogledajte koje su potrebe i mogućnosti Vašeg djeteta. Jesu li potrebe Vašeg djeteta više proprioceptivne, vestibularne ili možda vizualne? Imajte na umu sva osjetila, ali u prostoru imajte malo više stvari koje podražuju ono osjetilo koje Vaše dijete najviše treba. Ne morate imati svu tu opremu i pomagala cijelo vrijeme nasred boravka i po cijeli dan. Mijenjajte raspored i opremu prema želji odnosno potrebi djeteta. I svakako imajte djetetovu sigurnost na prvom mjestu.

Za propriocepciju:

stavite strunjače različite debljine i mekoće na pod (informacije dolaze iz zglobova)
stavite i strunjače ili zaštitnu spužvu na zidove (poglavito za djecu koja se vole “zabijati” u zidove)
imajte pilates lopte (dijete se može ljuljati na lopti na trbuhu ili ga možete masirati loptom po leđima; malo ih stisnuti među dvije lopte kao u sendviču; mogu skakati na lopti dok hvataju neki drugi manji predmet)
veliki jastuci (uzmite plahtu od prekrivača i napunite ju jastucima, stiroporom za igračke ili malim lopticama da djeca mogu skakati po tome, puzati preko tog velikog jastuka, prelaziti preko njega ili pak leći na njega)
napunite krevetić ili vrtić malenim platičnim lopticama da stvori bazen s lopticama.

baby in the crib — http://community.babycenter.com/post/a41331646/ball_pit_time_pic

Za taktilno:

napravite taktilne ploče kod kuće (mogu biti jednostavne poput ovih kvadratića na slici niže dolje ili možete otići korak dalje i napraviti brojeve i slova od različitih materijala i tekstura, pa čak i PECS kartice u 3D!) i stavite to na zid. Ako imate veći neiskorišteni zid, možete ga obući u neku tkaninu ili materijal.

http://www.pinterest.com/genrescue/pecs-non-verbal-communication/

0021154 — http://www.specialneedstoys.com/can/discrimination/504-tactile-board.html

stavite različite materijale na pod i najbolje bi bilo da dijete boso hoda po njima, ako je moguće. Možete imati jedan kut sobe, ili kut od kauča popunjen jastucima različitih materijala i tekstura (mekani, tvrdi, izrezbareni, vuneni, krzneni, glatki, bodljikavi) te nekoliko jastuka koji izgledaju isto, ali su različite težine, te i treću kategoriju jastuka koji izgledaju isto ali su različito punjeni – grahom, sterilnim mačjim pijeskom, perjem, kamenčićima ili stiroporom)
bojanje i pisanje također može biti zabavno (zeleni kaktus je kemijska olovka te ako ste toliko kreativni kao ovaj dječak sa slike, možete popiti i malo mineralne vode (“pikave vode”) iz kaktusove posude).

Kupanje: voli li Vaše dijete vodu? Ako da, kupa li se u kadi ili ga tuširate? Voli li jaki mlaz ili slabi? Možete se igrati pjenom za brijanje dok se dijete kupa te staviti po licu i tijelu, namazati i patkice. Također dodajte i taktilne podražaje popust krupne soli ili šećera u pjenu i namažite na djetetove ruke ili tijelo. Bolje da se sami namažu. Možete dodati i jestivu boju za vizualni podražaj. Time možete namazati i igračkice za vodu koje su bodljikave, spužvaste ili glatke).
Oralno: dijete su može prati zube i trljati jezik i desni četkicom – postoje klasične četkice, no i one za bebe i od NUKa. Možete i svojim prstom masirati oko usta i obraze. Također i desni i jezik ako vam dijete dopusti. Moj sin obožava tu masažicu uz pjesmicu “Wheels on the bus”. Puno se smiješi na to.

Za vestibularno:

stavite ljuljačku u kuću (neki roditelji su instalirali mrežu za ljuljanje iznad svog bračnog kreveta pa bi se djeca popela i skakala na krevet – pazite na sigurnost!! Možete instalirati ljuljačku na plafon, a na susjedni zid stavite konop pa kada se ljuljačka ne koristi, samo ju zaglavite između zida i konopa da ju ne morate uvijek skidati. IKEA ima jednu ili dvije koje ja svakodnevno koristim. Dijete se može ljuljati u različitim pozicijama (dok sjedi, na trbuhu, na koljenima ili dok stoji) i u različitim smjerovima te možete kombinirati i druge aktivnosti skupa s ljuljanjem poput hvatanja lopti različitih težina (proprioceptivno) ili materijala (taktilno).
možete imati balansne ploče ili jastuke. One samo da daju vestibularni podražaj nego su bodljikavi pa daju i taktilni podražaj.
jedna majka s kojom sam radila je okrenula kauč naopačke i koristila ga kao tobogan za svoju kćer. Ja sam koristila velike jastuke za naslon te sam ih stavila niz kauč pa su se nećaci na tome spuštali kao niz tobogan.

Za vizualni:

zapravo svi materijali i oprema već imaju nekakvu boju i oblik. Ako je Vaše dijete osjetljivo na vizualni podražaj, pojednostavite Vašu opremu. Također smanjite i broj svjetala u prostoru. Za one koji su na drugom dijelu kontinuuma, možete uvesti više boja, oblika i veličina.
uzmite rotirajući reflektor s više boja

ako stavite strunjače različitih visina (boja i tekstura) na pod kao što sam napomenula u dijelu o propriocepciji, to je izvrsno i za vizualni sustav.

Kroz cijelu kuću: ponekad je teško zadovoljiti dijete kada je vani -30 stupnjeva C. Parkovi nisu najbolja opcija ne samo radi hladnoće i jer su mokri od snijega ili kiše nego i jer se u Hrvatskoj vrlo brzo zamrači po zimi, već oko 16 sati. Iz nekog razloga, kod nas u večini parkova nema ulične rasvjete. Ali ima nešto što možete učiniti i unutra. Iskoristite cijelu kuću ili barem dio za poligon: rasprostrite jastuke, strunjače, stolove, balansne ploče, lopte i sve što Vam se čini zgodno u niz prepreka. Ako Vaše dijete može pratiti upute, dajte mu i nekakvu igračku koju na cilju mora staviti u košaru. Cilj može biti i toliko jednostavan kao i poljubac mami. Preko nekih prepreka dijete može puzati, hodati, provlačiti se ili čak preskočiti. Evo kako je kod nas:

Možete uključiti i kućne ljubimce ako su raspoloženi!

Mogu proći i kroz otvor za pećnicu od dječje kuhinjice.

Ima li Vaše dijete brata ili sestru? – udružite ih! Neka jedan drugome budu prepreka ili most kroz koji se treba provući.

Neka dobiju dopuštenje za iduću prepreku nakon obavljenog kognitivnog zadatka.

i na kraju, na cilju, neka ubace igračku u košaru ili kao ovdje na slici, u vrećicu.

Budite kreativni i zabavite se!

Posted on May 29, 2014 by lina. 0 comments

Making the house sensory friendly

Croatian version

Are you among those lucky ones who have an empty basement which is not humid, perfectly convenient for a sensory room? I’m not! I live in an apartment. I do have a garage though, but it does not fit any of these criteria. It’s dirty, cluttered and humid. And it’s two floors down. Definitely not suitable for a sensory room. My parents have a basement, but it’s again humid, terribly cluttered and has a big freezer. Again, very unsuitable. Good news is, you don’t need a special room! One of the great things about sensory integration is that it makes you be very creative, it makes you think outside of the box. Children and parents I work with inspire me and are responsible for many of my ideas, games and tricks of the trade.

So, what can you do to make your small, often congested home sensory friendly? We should start thinking 3D! Use your wall, ceilings, floor, doors etc. Everything can be useful. First what you need to look at are your child’s needs and abilities. Are your child’s needs more proprioceptive, vestibular or perhaps visual? Having in mind all other senses, put a little extra of those your child needs the most. Also, please note that you don’t have to have these things in your living room the whole time and every day. You can change the setting as you wish, or per child’s needs. Have your child’s safety in mind at all times.

For proprioceptive:

Lay mats of different thickness and softness onto the floor (information coming from the joints)
Put some mats or safety sponges onto the walls (for children who like to run and bounce themselves off of the walls)
Have Pilates kind of balls in the space (child can roll on the ball on their stomachs or you can lightly massage them with the ball on their backs or squeeze them in between two balls, or have them jump on the Pilates ball while catching some other small objects)
Big cushions (take a duvet cover and fill it up with pillows, Styrofoam or small soft balls and have your child jump on it, cross over it, crawl on it, lay down on it etc.)
fill up the crib with small plastic balls to make a DIY ball pit.

For tacticle:

make tactile boards at home (they can be as simple as these squares below, or you can take it a higher level and make numbers and letters out of different materials, maybe even PECS cards in 3D!) and put them on the walls. If you have a bigger empty wall space, you can “dress” your wall into some fabric or some material.

put different textiles, materials on the floor and keep your child barefoot if possible. You can have one corner of your room, or corner of your L-profile couch filled with cushions of different materials (soft, rough, spiky, woolen, furry, smooth) and a few cushions that look the same, but are of different weight and third category, same looking cushions filled differently – with beans, kitty sand (sterile), feathers, small stones, Styrofoam etc.)
even coloring and writing can be fun (the green cactus is a pen and if you are as creative as this little guy, you may even use the pot to drink the sparkling water from)

Bath time: does your child like the water? If yes, in a bath tub or sprayed on him/her as a shower? Strong pressure or mild? You can use shaving foam to play in the bath, put on child’s face and body, put on the swimming ducks – also incorporate other tactile stimuli here (put some sugar or grains of salt into the foam and spread on child’s body – better if they do it themselves, put some food coloring into the foam for visual stimulus, get some other toys that are spiky, rough, silky etc.)
Oral: you can have your child wash their teeth and also brush the tongue, lips, gums around etc with a regular brush or for babies or from NUK. Also, use your fingers to massage the space around the mouth and cheeks. You can also massage child’s gums and tongue if they allow you. My newborn loves this along with a “wheels on the bus” song. Makes him smile a lot

For vestibular:

implement a swing in your house (some parents had a net installed above their king sized beds and had a child climb on it and jump or drop down onto the mattresses – please consider safety here! – same you can do with a swing. Also, you can attach a swing on your ceiling and put a rope on a side so you don’t have to take the swing down each time, but just tuck it in between the rope and the wall or just keep it aside. IKEA has one or two nice swings that I use on daily basis. You can have your child be on the swing in different positions such as sitting, on their stomachs, on their knees or standing and implement different activities while swinging: catching some items that look the same, but are of different weight (proprioceptive) or material (tactile)
you can have different objects that react when stepped on such as a balance board, or these balance pillows. Not only do they give some vestibular input, but they are spiky on their surfaces so play as a tactile input, too.
one of the mothers I worked with flipped her couch upside down and used it as a slide for her daughter. I used big tight pillows down the couch for my niece and nephew

For visual:

practically, all of the materials and equipment listed above as ideas for proprioceptive, vestibular and tactile come in some color and shape. If your child is sensitive to visual stimuli, keep it simple. Also, don’t get many reflector lights into the space. For those who are on a hypo side, you may have these things in different colors, shapes and sizes.
get one of the colorful rotating reflectors

if you implement the mats of different heights (and colors and textures) on your floor that I mentioned was good for the proprioceptive system, it is good for the visual, too.

Throughout the house: sometimes it is very hard to keep the kids sensory and otherwise happy when it is -30 degrees Celsius outside. Parks are not only unavailable due to the possible snow or cold, but at least here in Croatia it gets dark so fast (around 4pm) during the winter and for some unknown reason, parks are not equipped with the street lights. There’s something you can do indoors. Use your whole apartment or house, or at least a few rooms and a hallway, for this exercise: spread cushions, mats, tables, balance boards, balls etc. into a line of obstacles. If your child can follow instructions, you may give him a toy or a ball that they need to carry through the obstacles and put into a basket in the end (have some kind of a goal – may it be as simple as a kiss to mom). Some parts they should crawl on, crawl under, crawl through, some walk over, some jump through and so on. Here’s a visual:

You may include your pets, too. If they are eager to participate :)

Go through an oven opening in the children’s kitchen

Your child has siblings? – involve them! Use each other as tunnels or obstacles to cross.

Getting an assignment done to go to the next obstacle

in the end, have a goal and put a toy in the basket or bag on the door handle.

Put your creative hat on and have fun!

Posted on May 28, 2014 by lina. 6 comments

Aktivnosti kod kuće

Vaše kuće i stanovi su mjesta koja vaša djeca najbolje poznaju. Oni će se uvijek malo drugačije ponašati kod kuće nego na drugim mjestima. Djeca kojoj se tjelesna shema nije do kraja razvila, bit će opuštenija i osjećat će se zaštićenije u okolini koja im je poznata. Tako da će isprobavanje novih aktivnosti bolje proći kod kuće.

Znamo da kada ste kod kuće, najvjerojatnije morate zbrinuti i kućanstvo; rublje, suđe, doručak, ručak, večeru (osobito ako Vaše dijete ili neki drugi član obitelji treba specijalnu prehranu), čišćenje itd. Stoga je razumljivo da se ne možete konstantno igrati s djetetom. I to je ok! Ali, to ne znači da dijete ne može dobiti senzorne podražaje koji mu trebaju. Učinite svoj dom senzorno podražljivim i dopustite djetetu da samo traži podražaje iz prostora koji mu trebaju. No, pazite da ne prestimulirate Vaše dijete. Važno je imati na umu koliko je svako dijete posebno i kako drugačije reagiraju na svaku aktivnost. Jedno te isto dijete može različito reagirati na isti podražaj u različito vrijeme. Ono što je bilo zabavno ujutro može postati najgori neprijatelj već za pet minuta ili do kraja dana. I to je isto u redu! Lakše je reći nego to napraviti, ali sve što morate raditi je promatrati svoje dijete kroz senzornu prizmu.

Možete dijelove vaših domova ili dječje sobe osposobiti za određeni podražaj (taktilni, vestibularni…). Neki roditelji su čak napravili senzorne sobe u svojim podrumima. To će omogućiti Vašem djetetu da neometano pronalazi podražaje koji mu trebaju. No, s obzirom da je cilj da integriramo podražaje, uvijek možemo jednu igru ili podražaj malo začiniti. Ako se Vašemu djetetu ljulja ili vrti ili poželi hodati na nečemu visokome, vrlo vjerojatno traži vestibularni podražaj. Dopustite mu to na trenutak ili dva te ga polako angažirajte na novu aktivnost, dok još prva traje: na pjesmicu ili aktivnost istraživanja tijela ili na nešto vizualno.

Da pojasnim: dok se Vaše dijete ljulja, možete mu dati da baca jastučiće različite težine u košaru ili da pjeva pjesmicu u ritmu ljuljanja. Ako nemate ljuljačku, jednostavno stavite dijete na deku i ljuljate ga u različitim smjerovima i ritmovima. Također, pitajte svoje dijete želi li još te čekajte na njegov odgovor: u obliku osmjeha, plakanja, ako kaže da ili ne ili bilo kakvom radnjom pokaže svoju volju. Ove aktivnosti mogu biti vrlo kratke – djecu je ponekad dovoljno zaljuljati jednom ili dva puta i to treba poštivati, makar bismo mi rado da se ljuljaju i dalje. Vaše je dijete možda preosjetljivo na ovaj podražaj te ga ne želimo prestimulirati.

Ako trebate obavljati svoje kućanske poslove, a dijete bi trebalo biti samo na neko vrijeme, dajte im neki zadatak za koji mislite da mogu sami uspješno izvršiti bilo u svojoj sobi ili kod Vas u kuhinji. Mogli biste napraviti poligon po kući ili hodniku sa različitim preprekama koje dijete mora proći da bi došlo do Vas. Napravite ga tako da ste sigurni da ga dijete može uspješno proći (ne prelagano, ali niti toliko teško da se bespotrebno frustrira). U sklopu poligona možete i nadodati druge aktivnosti poput pronalaženja igrački ili loptica koje mora skupiti i staviti u košaru na kraju. To će Vašem djetetu dati osjećaj za početak i kraj te će imati cilj koji će im dati osjećaj zadovoljstva. Zato je vrlo bitno napraviti zadatak dovoljno izazovan, ali da ga je moguće prebroditi.

Ako je Vaše dijete premalo da bude samo i mislite da to nije dobro za njegovu sigurnost, neka dijete bude s Vama npr u kuhinji; može se igrati s različitim teksturama hrane kao što su grah, sirova tjestenina, žitarice ili mu možete čak prirediti ljepljivo tijesto od brašna i vode. Ako to tijesto napravite malo žilavijim, može biti dobra proprioceptivna aktivnost gdje dijete mora otkidati male komadiće, napraviti kuglice među vršcima prstiju i npr. zalijepiti te kuglice na komad papira sa unaprijed nacrtanim oblicima (srce, krug, linija, lice..). Naravno, imajte na umu da sve ove namirnice mogu završiti i u ustima Vašeg djeteta pa treba imati dijete na oku i procijeniti je li ova igra sigurna za njega i po pitanju alergija (npr. gluten ili kikiriki).

A Girl and a boy playing with shaving foam. Permission acquired from their parents. ko ste primijetili da Vaše dijete ne voli imati prljave ruke, onda će iduća aktivnost biti vrlo izazovna za Vaše dijete i možda će mu biti potrebno i nekoliko mjeseci da prihvati pa probajte aktivnost uvoditi postepeno – igra s pjenom. Pjena je vrlo taktilno stimulirajuća koju mnoga djeca s odstupanjem u taktilnoj obradi isprva ne mogu podnijeti. To se često dogodi jer pjena nema čvrste granice i rubove koje daju informacije našem mozgu o tom predmetu pa tako pjena vrlo lagano klizi kroz prste i mozak ju ne može s lakoćom definirati. Može biti toliko zastrašujući osjećaj da se pojavi nagon za povraćanjem. Idite polako i postepeno i nemojte forsirati dijete. S pjenom se možete igrati na ogledalu ili npr na staklenim vratima te crtati prstićima različite oblike, crteže ili raditi otiske. Neka djeca su slabije osjetljiva i na okus pa im je pjena za brijanje zbog svog snažnog mirisa vrlo privlačna za istraživanje ustima. Imajte i to na umu kada dajete djetetu da se igra s pjenom (kao alternativu, možete koristiti šlag ako Vaše dijete to smije staviti u usta).

Za djecu koja su slabije osjetljiva na taktilni i proprioceptivni podražaj, pokušajte nabaviti ili napraviti neravne podloge koje ćete staviti na mjesto gdje se Vaše dijete najviše igra. Mi koristimo sobnu plažu Dr. Stošića koju možete kupiti, a alternativno možete i napraviti svoju npr. od plutenih čepova.

Uzmite presvlaku za prekrivač te ju napunite malim lopticama ili granuliranim stiroporom. Ovo će onda biti sigurno mjesto gdje Vaše dijete može skakati (ako su loptice mekane!), prekoračavati, prepuzavati, valjati se ili jednostavno ležati. Ili samo dajte svojim vrečama-sjedalicama punjenim stiroporom novu ulogu.

Posted on November 20, 2013 by lina. 0 comments

Activities in the park

Parks are an endless source of sensory input, sometimes easily over stimulating the child, but also a possible endless source of fun, too!

If I asked you what does your park have, what would you say? Would you say: a swing, a slide and a sand box? If your park has all that, that’s awesome. If your park doesn’t have that, if you don’t have a park at all, that’s ok, too! You as a person are more than enough what is not so obvious is that parks or some green areas in your neighborhood have tree leaves that are especially in the Fall season colorful (visual), they make noise (audio), if taken in hand they can be a great source of tactile input. Some are dry and make a crisp sound, others are wet and usually not well appreciated among both kids and adults. Who wants dirty hands, right? If your child doesn’t speak, you can help him/her imitate the shhhh sounds of those leaves, too. If you take a few beautiful and colorful leaves home, you can make some creative art. From unusual decorations on a gift box, or sorting them by color or size to making them into powder (the dried ones) and using it to form new shapes (gluing the powder on paper in a shape, mixing it with water etc). I tried making an Indian coloring art called rangoli out of different colors of fallen leaves. Unfortunately I don’t have a photo to share with you. So, all this is just from leaves, and we didn’t even enter a park!
Let’s go inside and hit the swings, the most popular thing in the park. Or at least sharing the first place with the slide. Since there’s a high demand for a swing, sometimes kids have to wait for their turn, right? That mostly means either shout: “I wanna goooo!” Or cry until the child on the swing leaves. Older parks, at least here in Croatia, have those kinds of swings that swing you only forward-backward.

More modern parks nowadays have those disks made out if rope which one can swing in any direction including rotations (in some cases).

Swinging a child (also applicable for putting a baby to sleep) in different directions gives their brains different information or better to say, different sensory input. Forward-backward swinging mostly affects the frontal cortex whose primary task is thinking while left-right swinging mostly affects the balance part of the brain.
Aside from actual swinging, you may practice planning and sequencing with your child. Especially if you have more children. Let them wait their turn starting from short period of waiting to progressively longer. Ask your child to list you the order of children in which they will go on a swing. This you can also do on a slide, but in addition, you can ask your child to verbally describe how they want to slide down – on their backs / tummies, upside down etc. Once they are up there on a slide, you can have the child count one, two, threeee… and then go down.Then change the rhythm. Oneeee, two, threeee… Another popular item in the park is the sand box. Sand gives a very strong sensory input. It has no obvious boundaries so childrens’ reactions to sand are similar to those of the shaving foam: fear, disgust, vomiting, etc. depending on your child’s sensory profile. You may make this game intriguing to a child who doesn’t like sand on their hands by putting some small objects or toys into the sand pit and ask the child to take it out. Digg deep! It can be anything from small balls to small rubber animals or blocks. Another suggestion is to make the sand wet by adding some water. Do it progressively and observe your child’s reactions. Does your child like it better when the sand was dry or when it was a cookie dough or perhaps when it is completely muddy? After you are done squeezing the sand through your fingers, you may take some shapes and create imprints in sand.

You may also use equipment in the park to make a polygon. Give your child a toy and specific instructions on how to overcome all the obstacles and have them put the toy in the basket in the end of the polygon. That will give a meaning to this string of activities and obstacles a child has to go through.

Posted on November 20, 2013 by lina. 5 comments